In mountainous and inland areas, it is often small and micro-businesses that hold the land and landscape together: small farms, few livestock, and family-run businesses. They are crucial to communities, but also the most vulnerable when conflicts with wildlife arise. Yet, these very businesses often struggle to access support measures because tenders and access mechanisms end up favoring those with more structured organizations.
For this reason, the special call launched by the Emilia-Romagna Region as part of the Rural Development 2023–2027 program (SRD04 – Action 1) deserves attention. It addresses the prevention of wildlife damage in a broad sense, but introduces two important elements. The first is accessibility for micro-enterprises, a step not taken for granted compared to many measures that have, in fact, penalized them or made them more difficult to reach. The second is the approach.
This is a call for proposals for wildlife in general. But its priorities and criteria reward those who invest in wolf damage prevention and in measures related to the adoption of preventive tools. A sensible choice: rather than distributing resources generically, try to direct them where they are most needed and where they can have a concrete impact, both in terms of damage reduction and in terms of coexistence and conflict reduction. In this, Emilia-Romagna is continuing an approach that over the years has increasingly focused on prevention and operational tools to reduce critical issues.
What is it about
The budget is €2 million. Agricultural businesses (including micro-enterprises) can apply for up to €30.000 per beneficiary, with a contribution of 100% of eligible expenditure. This is also crucial: effective prevention requires real and ongoing interventions, and for a small business, the possibility of not having to co-finance or advance large sums can be the difference between "doing it" and "not doing it."
The practical goal is to make it more difficult for wildlife to access crops, livestock, and sensitive areas, reducing the potential for damage. The call for proposals funds, for example:
– fixed or mobile fences, including electrified ones (with energizers and power systems);
– “virtual fencing” solutions;
– purchase of guard dogs;
– deterrent systems (acoustic, luminous or otherwise).
One element that makes the measure truly applicable is that the eligible expenses also include installation and labor costs.
One of the most significant aspects of the call for proposals is its explicit inclusion of micro-businesses. In the mountainous, hilly, and inland areas of Emilia-Romagna, it is often precisely those farms with few livestock or small acreage that play a vital role: protecting the land, maintaining the landscape, and continuing agricultural operations. At the same time, they are often the most economically fragile and therefore most exposed to the risk of closure when costs and challenges increase.
The inclusion of microenterprises in a 100% funded measure is therefore an important signal: it protects biodiversity, but also supports the "small" agricultural fabric that, especially in marginalized areas, is strategic for holding communities and landscapes together.
Prevention, technical support and information
This call is part of a broader regional framework focused on prevention and operational support. In addition to grants, the Region also provides dedicated technical assistance to identify the most suitable defense systems for individual companies, with a dedicated contact channel.
An invitation to spread
To ensure this opportunity doesn't remain on paper, it's crucial that information circulates. We therefore urge local administrators, agricultural trade associations, cooperatives, technicians, and local organizations to disseminate it as widely as possible, paying particular attention to small businesses, which now finally have a more accessible tool that better meets their real needs. If you are a municipality, cooperative, technician, or association, please help spread this opportunity to microbusinesses in your area: they are the ones most likely to be left out, and those for whom this measure could be most impactful.
In a context where discussions on wildlife, particularly large carnivores, often risk becoming polarized, measures like this help bring the discussion back to more concrete ground: coexistence is built through practical choices, continuity, and shared responsibility. Investing in prevention and information means protecting the work of even the smallest businesses and making local communities better prepared and less exposed to fear and tension.
A pragmatic approach that looks to the present but above all to the future of our territories.
It's a concrete opportunity and, in a certain sense, also a call to shared responsibility: if the Region is investing seriously in prevention, now it's up to livestock farms to seize it and equip themselves, because coexistence is built on the ground, not by waiting for shortcuts.